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Do Solar Gains Face D-Day With Germany?

Three solar firms that received
a ratings upgrade to outperform
on Monday from Barclays Capital watched their shares soar towards the sun in the week's first session.

Some more skeptical solar industry experts have been left scratching their heads by the recent fervor. They wonder, with a major dent to the solar industry possibly coming soon in the form of changes to the German feed-in tariff system, are solar investors getting out ahead of reality?

Heavy trading and huge one-day price gains were the norm for
JA Solar(JASO - Get Report),
SunPower(SPWRA) and
Suntech Power Holdings(STP).

JA Solar was up 12.50% on Monday, or a gain of 55 cents to $4.95, with a whopping 16 million-plus shares traded, versus an average volume of 5.6 million.

SunPower, still to reveal the extent of its ongoing accounting issues on Dec. 16, was up 9.6%, or a little over $2 to a closing price of $24.45.

Suntech Power was up 10.8%, or $1.66, to a close of $17.05.

While the Barclays upgrade benefited these three firms directly,
ReneSolar(SOL - Get Report) actually had the second-highest gain on the day, climbing to its highest price in over a month on Monday. ReneSola was up 12.2% on Monday, or 50 cents, to $4.60. In late October, ReneSola had hit a three-month low of $3.57.